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He said: “The same figures show that real wages are lower today than they were 10 years ago. Most people in work are worse off. Does the Prime Minister really believe falling wages are a sign of a strong economy?”

Mrs May hailed Corbyn's words on unemployment as a "first in the House of Commons."

She said the lower unemployment rate was good news for the economy and said the increase in the income tax personal allowance had helped people struggling with a rising cost of living.

But Corbyn hit back, challenging her to "do a first" of her own, "and answer a question", to roaring cheers from the Labour backbenches.

He asked: "When millions of workers are having to rely on the benefits system just to make ends meet, isn't that a sign not of a strong economy but of a weak economy?"

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Mrs May said she recognised some people in the country are finding life difficult, and "that is why it is so important that government take steps to help people with the cost of living, with the costs that they find themselves facing week in week out."

"But you can only do that," she insisted, "if you have a strong economy, and you only get a strong economy with a Conservative government."

The Prime Minister refused to pause the bungled rollout of Universal Credit, insisting it was getting more people into work.

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She turned to the recent OECD report, which she quoted as saying the debt after Labour's time in office was "unsustainable."

But Corbyn leaped to an unusually spirited defence of New Labour's record, quoting former Tory Chancellor George Osborne, who this week admitted: "Did Gordon Brown cause the sub-prime crisis in America? No.

"Broadly speaking the government did what was necessary in a very difficult situation."